Broad training. Bold research. Bright future.
Turn your passion for business into a successful academic career with a PhD in Business Administration from Gies College of Business.
Flexible curriculum, ambitious research opportunities, strong faculty mentorship, and an unmatched community of scholarly collaboration will prepare you to be an innovative thought leader and authoritative instructor in your area of specialization. You will shape the world of business and its next leaders.
Choose from 4 specializations
As an applicant, you will choose a specialization to guide your research interests as well your teaching focus:
- Information systems, operations, supply chain, and analytics: Learn how existing and emerging technologies impact the context and practice of business, including how companies achieve a competitive advantage through superior production and distribution.
Marketing: Pursue a track in consumer behavior, quantitative modeling, or strategy, while conducting high-impact research on topics such as consumer psychology, product strategy, and materialism.
Organizational behavior and business law: Study individuals and groups in organizations to grasp organizational influence on economic and societal issues within and beyond the organization. Investigate how business laws and regulations impact this dynamic.
Strategic management, entrepreneurship, and international business: Understand how new firms operate at a global level by delving into political, economic, cultural, and legal influences. Study how organizations create and sustain value through theoretical and multidisciplinary empirical approaches to organizational economics and theory.
Rigorous research, big results
Earning your PhD means much more than just regurgitating existing knowledge. Gies PhD candidates are equipped to theorize and conduct empirical investigations, ultimately leading to knowledge creation and fresh insights.
The PhD curriculum in Business Administration provides invigorating coursework for the first two years that leaves you inspired and well-positioned to narrow in on a research topic. You’ll take 12 hours to hone your knowledge of this topic and also complete a minor (minors may be completed in areas outside of the Business Administration options). You’ll leave the program with a deep well of knowledge in your subject matter and outstanding preparation for future professional research.
The results of this program speak for themselves: 98% of our PhD graduates have pursued careers in academia since 2005. Their placements include positions with Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Wisconsin, Rice University, HEC Paris, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and many more.
The community
Together with a doctoral cohort averaging about 40 students, you’ll engage in activities like peer mentoring, professional development series, community events, and brown-bag seminars that foster camaraderie and cooperation among peers. Supportive faculty will champion your work through a formalized mentorship process. You’ll be assigned a faculty adviser from day one to guide you through the program and ensure you’re getting the most out of a Gies education.
Our doctoral students enjoy contemporary workspaces in the newly renovated Irwin Doctoral Study Hall, allocated exclusively for doctoral student use.
Choose Gies and open the door to countless possibilities for your academic future.
